Zholia Alemi, 56, said she was qualified when she came to work as a psychiatristIn reality, the convicted fraudster had flunked her first year and dropped outFor two decades Alemi treated thousands of mental health patients in the NHS

The backgrounds of 3,000 foreign doctors are being urgently checked after a conwoman with no qualifications was allowed to work as an NHS psychiatrist for 22 years.

Zholia Alemi, 56, claimed to have a degree from the University of Auckland in New Zealand when she came to work in the UK in 1992.

In reality, the convicted fraudster had flunked her first year and dropped out.

But nobody at the General Medical Council, the watchdog responsible for vetting the background of medics, checked whether her documentation was genuine.

At that time, doctors from certain Commonwealth countries could be cleared to start work simply by presenting their qualifications, without sitting any assessments.

It meant that for more than two decades from 1995, Alemi was free to treat thousands of mental health patients in the NHS, apparently prescribing medicine, making assessments and even sectioning some of the most vulnerable in society.

The deception by Alemi, thought to be of Iranian extraction, was only discovered after she was convicted of trying to fake the will of an elderly woman to steal her £1.3 million fortune.

A judge described her as 'despicable' and jailed her for five years last month.

The Daily Mail learned about the GMC's review after being alerted by an investigation into Alemi's background by Carlisle's News and Star newspaper.

The fraudster, who could have earned up to £100,000 a year working as an NHS psychiatrist, enjoyed the trappings of wealth – buying bottles of expensive champagne as investments and driving a red Lotus Elise sports car.

It is understood that when she came here, Alemi showed officials a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery certificate.

In reality, her only qualification was a degree in human biology.

Last night patients' groups called for a public inquiry as police confirmed their investigation into Alemi was ongoing.

John Woodcock, independent MP for Barrow and Furness, in the Lake District, where Alemi was most recently working, said the case was 'hugely alarming'.

'If this had been one individual that had slipped through the net it would have been concerning, but the idea that it could be a systemic loophole that has been exploited is hugely alarming,' he said.

'It is understandable that patients are calling for an inquiry – this is of sufficient magnitude that that may well be necessary.'

The GMC admitted its checks had been inadequate and confirmed an 'urgent investigation' was looking into the backgrounds of 3,000 doctors who came to work from Commonwealth countries, before 2003, in the same way.

Incredibly, Alemi had been investigated and given an official warning by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in 2012 after failing to disclose a conviction for careless driving.

She also sectioned psychiatric patients for treatment without the authority to do so, and was banned from working for 12 months as a consequence.

Despite this, no one thought to examine her background or the reliability of her qualifications.

One woman, who claimed one of her relatives had been poorly treated by the fake psychiatrist, wrote on Facebook: 'The way she (Alemi) treated my relative was appalling and now that I find she was not a qualified psychiatrist, and was allowed to treat patients for 22 years, I am beyond livid.'

Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said it seemed 'incredible' that someone could slip through the net in such a fashion.

She added: 'There definitely needs to be a public inquiry – how many patients will she have come into contact with? Patients will be horrified that the proper checks weren't in place.'

GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said the doctors being checked represented just 1 per cent of the 300,000 foreign medics on the register and that vetting was much more rigorous today than it was in the 1990s.

But he admitted: 'It is extremely concerning that a person used a fraudulent qualification to join the register.'

Last night, the GMC could not say exactly where Alemi had worked during her career, although she is understood to have had links to West Yorkshire, Lancashire and Scotland.

She was working as a locum old-age psychiatrist at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in 2016 when she met 84-year-old Gillian Belham.

Alemi befriended Mrs Belham, but when she was accused of stealing watches from the pensioner, police discovered she had been working to take control of her finances – even deceiving some of her friends into being signatories on a new will.

The Cumbria trust said it had launched a review.

The Department of Health said: 'We expect the GMC to investigate how this criminal was able to register as a doctor and put measures in place to make sure it can't happen again.'

Tommy Monk wrote:But... sshhh...you can't say anything about it in case you are called "racist"...

You poor lil innocent lamb. Surrounded by vacuous simpletons who shout "wacist, wacist" at you for no reason at all. Not as if you've ever given folk any reason to do so, EVER!

Tommy Monk wrote:Are you really surprised...???There are shit loads of dodgy foreigners here working in top jobs with bogus certificates!!!...

Link, please. What you've claimed here - a) could be the truth . . . . . . . or b) could be a tall pile of horseshit.

A link backing up your claim with facts & figures from a reliable, respected source will settle the argument.It will also elevate your words from the level of a good old fashioned xenophobic pub rant, . . . . . to a sound, statement of fact.

_________________In the midst of winter I found there was within me, an invincible summer - Camus.

There are shit loads of dodgy foreigners here working in top jobs with bogus certificates!!!

But... sshhh...you can't say anything about it in case you are called "racist"...

I doubt there's shitloads, Tommy but even one is not acceptable. Having said that....if she's worked for 22 years doing this and nobody has complained, that begs the question, did she do OK? Was she a good psychiatrist, in spite of her deception?

Psychiatrists, Or "Trick Cyclists" as they are known, must be the easiest job in the World to scam. Sit behind a desk with a notebook and pen and say "when did you first have these feelings of wanting to be a man/woman ?

nicko wrote:Psychiatrists, Or "Trick Cyclists" as they are known, must be the easiest job in the World to scam. Sit behind a desk with a notebook and pen and say "when did you first have these feelings of wanting to be a man/woman ?

I remember when my mum had therapy for her depression. My poor mum's nerves had never been right since she had to live through the Blitz. The therapist told her to go to the corner shop in her nightie! I was like...what the thundering fuck?

MY mom was the same, she was buried in the coal cellar after a Bomb hit close to our house. I was in the Anderson [Air raid shelter] with Dad. It caught up with her some years later. She was sent to Psychiatrist who put her on Valium and Purple Hearts and told it's in your mind, you must get over it !

nicko wrote:MY mom was the same, she was buried in the coal cellar after a Bomb hit close to our house. I was in the Anderson [Air raid shelter] with Dad. It caught up with her some years later. She was sent to Psychiatrist who put her on Valium and Purple Hearts and told it's in your mind, you must get over it !

It's a form of PTSD, if you ask me. She was quite nervy and terrified of thunderstorms or anything very loud. She was put on Ativan, became addicted and had a right nightmare getting herself off them. In those days, doctors just said take this and shut up.

Original Quill wrote:This is a particular problem since the advent of Internet Universities. Trump University, before the FBI shut it down, was a case in point.

I have to admit that I had never heard of Trump University (as universities are supposed to be seats of learning I would have thought that might reasonably be regarded as a contradiction in terms) but surely this phenomenon existed far earlier than Tim Berners-Lee's life-changing discovery.

I remember as a very young investigative reporter doing a story about a chiropractitioner with a string of qualifications including a PhD and a Master's who had built up a large and very profitable practice...every qualification of which turned out to have been bought from American degree mills and which resulted in him being successfully sued for malpractice that cost a patient his ability to walk.

Original Quill wrote:This is a particular problem since the advent of Internet Universities. Trump University, before the FBI shut it down, was a case in point.

I have to admit that I had never heard of Trump University (as universities are supposed to be seats of learning I would have thought that might reasonably be regarded as a contradiction in terms) but surely this phenomenon existed far earlier than Tim Berners-Lee's life-changing discovery.

I remember as a very young investigative reporter doing a story about a chiropractitioner with a string of qualifications including a PhD and a Master's who had built up a large and very profitable practice...every qualification of which turned out to have been bought from American degree mills and which resulted in him being successfully sued for malpractice that cost a patient his ability to walk.

For someone like me, with a Masters, and both a Ph.D. and a J.D., from highly qualified universities, how disheartening it is to run into some 'flash-Gordon' internet-qualified jockey waiting in the reception room to interview for the same job.

Of course, I no longer go for job interviews--today I own the company--but it's difficult to realize that your life's efforts have been cheapened and deregulated so much since you worked so hard to attain that status.

Tommy Monk wrote:But... sshhh...you can't say anything about it in case you are called "racist"...

You poor lil innocent lamb. Surrounded by vacuous simpletons who shout "wacist, wacist" at you for no reason at all. Not as if you've ever given folk any reason to do so, EVER!

Tommy Monk wrote:Are you really surprised...???There are shit loads of dodgy foreigners here working in top jobs with bogus certificates!!!...

Link, please. What you've claimed here - a) could be the truth . . . . . . . or b) could be a tall pile of horseshit.

A link backing up your claim with facts & figures from a reliable, respected source will settle the argument.It will also elevate your words from the level of a good old fashioned xenophobic pub rant, . . . . . to a sound, statement of fact.

You may well be a totally honest and above board person... and that is commendable... but if you think everyone else is like you, and think foreigners can do no wrong, then that also makes a gullible fool... and an ignorant one too, as there has been plenty of news reports over the years that confirm what I say...!!!

You have the internet at your fingertips... try checking it out for yourself...!

Tommy Monk wrote:You have the internet at your fingertips... try checking it out for yourself...!

Having the Internet at one's fingertips is only part of the equation. You've got to know whereof the person is speaking. For example, as a lawyer, I don't pretend to know every detail about the law. But, having gone to law school, I know where to look.

When it comes to your thoughts, a person can't know where to look unless s/he has gone to school on what's in your mind. Unless you tell them, it remains a mystery.. That is why it is best if you substantiate your own points.

HT... I heard a radio phone in where the topic was being discussed... woman phoned in who worked for one of these companies... said it was almost exclusively foreign students who were using the "service"... And largest group of those were chinese...

_________________“Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” — Isaac Newton

'The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.' — George Orwell